Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -Guide to Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -Guide to Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

The easier way of getting your research work done is to understand how to

1. SAY what you are going to say
2.  SAY IT
3. SAY what you have said earlier

When Writing Chapter Five of Research Project. You are meant to say what you’ve already said. Here, you are reminding us where we are coming from.

In our previous guide on Writing the Data Analysis and Presentation- Guide to chapter four of a research project, we took time to explain how to report your research analysis. At this point of your research documentation (as it is assumed you are already done with your study and now reporting). It is always ideal to start chapter five by reminding the reader of the purpose of the study (SAY What you’ve said before), this will refresh their memory to what the research study is all about.

Firstly, you will have to tell us (the readers/audience) what you are able to understand from your analysis of the variables used. Then relate that to what other researchers had found out from their research (as related to your study). Then you make your recommendations based on your findings and finally your conclusion.

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Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -The Components of Chapter 5

Writing Chapter Five (5) of Research Project has been titled in different ways. Here, it is suggested that the chapter is titled as Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendations, since institutions vary in their Chapter 5, Check with your institution on their preferred title for chapter 5.

The following are sub-sections/headings for Chapter 5

1. Preamble
2. Summary
3. Discussion
4. Conclusion
5. Recommendation

Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -PREAMBLE/INTRODUCTION

This is where you introduce the chapter, stating what the reader/audience should expect and how you are going to arrive at it.

Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -SUMMARY

The objective of this section is to refresh the reader’s understanding of the ‘findings’ or ‘results’. Highlight the main or major findings that you had stated in Chapter 4. There is no need to explain in detail the findings or results, some researchers or students make this mistake of copying chapter four and pasting it in this chapter, please avoid this temptation.

Make your summary very simple so that someone who is not in the field can understand.
Remember to write in the past tense. For example, “Job satisfaction as expressed by staff did not vary according to their personality types”. The reason for this is because you are reporting what you have already done.

For quantitative research, to ensure flow, it is suggested that you use the research questions or hypotheses as a guide.
For qualitative research, you could use the research questions, themes or categories. Study your findings and tell your reader how they have answered the research questions.

Summarizing your findings which you have stated earlier is not enough here, you just need to do more than that, you need to share your belief on what you got and did not get

The key word is ‘discussion/ summary’. At this point, you should be able to sell your research (Let people see reason with your decision).

Here You can use the present tense because you are making statements that are derived from the study.

State the possible reasons, causes, and factors for the findings or results stated in the ‘Summary’ section. For example, a significant finding from your study was that alcohol actually influences academic performance’. What do you think produced such a finding?

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You need to know that even if you did not get the results you were expecting, you should explain why – For example, the experiment to test the reliability/usefulness of given psychotherapy did not show significant differences – try to explain why the method did not produce the results you were expecting.

You also show how the findings of your study have/will contributed/contribute to the existing understanding of concepts identified in the works of other people – important to acknowledge the views of others who share similar positions as those identified by your research. Compare and contrast your findings or results with those of other researchers: How are your findings/results similar or different from other studies? What do the results mean for them?

If you want to show how your study contributed to your theoretical framework then show how your work could influence the theoretical debate.

If someone only reads the ‘Discussion’ section, they should get a good understanding of what you found and why it matters. You should explain to the reader clearly, in a narrative, without restarting your results.

Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -Recommendations

You must be logical, specific, attainable and relevant here. Your recommendations should be addressed to persons, organizations, or agencies directly concerned with the issues or to those who can immediately implement the recommended solutions.
You should be able to present another topic which is very relevant to the present study that can be further investigated by future researchers. But never recommend anything that is not part of your study or not being mentioned in your findings.

After organizing your thoughts as to what would be the contents of your recommendations, you should write it in the simple present tense.

In the Recommendation section, tell your readers what should have done which you did not do because of factors you weren’t able to control, the them the area of interest you would have liked to explore but which was outside the scope of your study, the follow-up studies that should be done given your result and finally, how the study could be extended.

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Don’t forget that there are professionals in your field. Tell your readers how these professionals in your field can be impacted by the findings of this study?
Tell your readers what you recommend for these professionals, policymakers, stakeholders, government leaders etc

Writing Chapter Five of Research Project -Conclusions

For the first time in the project (outside the interpretation of analysis), you can state your personal opinion with the collected data supporting it.
The conclusions of your project report relate directly to the research questions or objectives. They represent the contribution to the knowledge. They also relate directly to the significance of the study, which is always, in some way, to improve the human condition. These are the major generalizations, the answer to the problem(s) revealed in Chapters 1 and 2.

Do you have any question relating to the topic above? Kindly use the comment box and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.